Top 5 Features to Make your Car Safer

Safety Ratings 

Naturally, most car buyers' primary safety concern is how well the vehicle they're considering will hold up in a collision. Two official bodies rate car safety features for collision survival in the U.S.; the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. IIHS evaluates crashworthiness on a five-point scale of performance (small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints). NHTSA monitors results determined by the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, rating vehicles accordingly.  

In its 2014 tests, IIHS awarded Kia Optima its highest accolade, "Top Safety Pick." NHTSA gave Optima an overall safety rating of five stars; the maximum. 

The separate gradings are as follows:  

• Overall rating: maximum grade
• Frontal crash: maximum grade
• Side crash: maximum grade
• Rollover: maximum grade
   

Airbags 

Perhaps the single most important of all car safety features introduced since the seatbelt is the airbag. Airbags almost instantly fill up the space between vehicle passengers and the vehicle itself, providing a "soft cushion" to reduce the dangerous forces caused by rapid deceleration. The introduction of front airbags alone was shown to reduce the risk of dying in a crash by approximately 30 percent, so this is an extremely important safety factor when deciding on a vehicle purchase. 

The Kia Soul features a full airbag array: 

• Driver front and side 
• Passenger front and side
• Front and rear side curtain
• Rear head
   

Driver Visibility 

Driving at night, and in the twilight hours, poses many safety concerns. The driver's ability to see the road ahead, and thus avoid potential dangers, is paramount. Fixed headlamps, which point in the same direction as the vehicle, do nothing to increase driver awareness of potential problems when a car is being cornered.   

The Kia Sorento features adaptive front lighting, a system which uses motor-powered headlamps to improve nighttime driver visibility. Computing both steering wheel movements and speed of travel to deliver the ideal beam angle, these headlamps automatically adjust to point into the direction of turn. 

Technology 

It seems technology advances more rapidly with every passing year, and nowhere is this truer than in automotive design. Alongside refinements in passenger comfort and entertainment, numerous car safety features have been added to today's vehicles. Choosing to buy a car that comes with a less than full complement of safety-enhancing technology is to deliberately increase risk to you, as driver, and your passengers, and all other road users.
 

The Kia Rio delivers as standard across all trim levels:

• Four-wheel anti-lock braking systems
• Electronic stability control
• Vehicle stability management
• Electronic brake-force distribution
• Hill-start assist control
• Tire-pressure monitoring systems
   

Crumple Zones 

Crumple zones, also called crush spaces, are features of a vehicle's structure that absorb the energy from an impact by "controlled deformation." This means, in simple terms, that parts of the vehicle are designed to collapse in a specific way, and in doing so, they deflect impact energies away from passengers by consuming as part of the process of buckling. 

The Kia Sportage features both front and rear crumple zones, again as standard across the entire model range, designed to absorb then dissipate impact energy, which process helps to preserve the integrity of the passenger compartment. 

 

Learn More 

Drivers in the Bergen County, New Jersey, area can get further details from Jack Daniels Kia, the premier Kia dealer serving Paterson, Fair Lawn, Paramus and Hackensack, NJ. Located at 2809 Broadway, Fair Lawn, NJ, 07410, Jack Daniels Kia maintains a full inventory of all new Kia vehicles. Call the sales staff on (877) 859-7306 for more information, or to arrange a test drive.

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